Rogues Roost to Chester

 It was a difficult decision to leave Rogues Roost in the morning.  Jeanie was keen to inflate the paddleboard and a day of rest and relaxation was tempting but the unknown status of the fog was on our minds.  The better decision, with clear skies was to continue onto Chester where we knew we had the opportunity of seeing the replica schooner Bluenose II plus the weather was forecast to turn again.  Chester was holding their annual Race Week, the biggest sailing regatta in North America and this held huge appeal to Charlie.

Charlie quite confident in taking Paradigm through these narrow channels ... meanwhile Jeanie was completely out of her comfort zone!!

We motored through the narrow channel and back out to sea.  Rolling and uncomfortable, what little wind we had was right on the nose and again the skies turned grey and we headed into a line of fog, a distinct chill and moist air enveloping us.

We used the opportunity of running the engine to make water and once we had better visibility Jeanie took some fixes with her hand bearing compass and plotted on our paper chart.  Our electronic CMaps is certainly faster and probably more accurate!!

The coastal trip to Chester was really interesting.  Crossing the vast St Margaret’s Bay entrance, we saw numerous small, uninhabited rocky islands and when entering Mahones Bay we sighted a 2 masted schooner in the distance.  The AIS showed this to be the famous Bluenose II Charlie was so keen on seeing.

The majestic Bluenose II

Leaving Bluenose II we continued on our course to reach Chester by early afternoon when from the skies we watched as an Air Force refuelling plane did a fly by of Bluenoose II and then the same for Paradigm.  What a very special experience!!

Chester Yacht Club preparing for Race Week - 125 yachts registered
Bluenose II Schooner, One Design's, Pursuit 1 & 2, J105, Farr 30, Sonar

Photo taken from the Cruising Guide of Nova Scotia

By 2pm we were anchored off Little Fish Island in Back Harbour next to a gorgeous Farr 55 foot (NZ design) cruising boat and later that afternoon were invited by the owners of the solitary house on Little Fish Island for drinks and dinner.  Annie, Henry and Benjie are from Maryland, the family have owned the island since 1908 and the house is totally authentic right down to the wooden washboard still used on laundry day.  Gorgeous features such as wainscoting, detailed architraves, period furnishings, claw footed baths, views of the sea from every window of this three storey house.  The attic even housed a couple of small wooden boats in superb condition along with WWI uniforms, turn of the century toys and other memorabilia.

Little Fish Island and the Jenkins House

Great conversations were had while we enjoyed grass fed steak cooked on the barbecue, parmesan crusted potatoes, spinach and home grown cucumbers with stunning Italian Red and NZ Cloudy Bay to accompany it.  We made plans for us all to catch up on Gibson Island in the autumn.

Little Fish Island